Angela's Ashes | 1999
- Locations |
- Republic of Ireland
- DIRECTOR |
- Alan Parker
The ashes of controversy were fanned into flames when Alan Parker decided to film Frank McCourt's grim, poverty-ridden autobiography on the actual locations of the book in Limerick, in the west of Ireland.
Many of the sites were no longer as they were during the period of the book so in the end a patchwork of locations in Cork and Dublin was knitted together, with establishing scenes in the real Limerick and sets built in Bray's Ardmore Studios.
One of the main settings, the muddy, cobbled 'Roden Lane' had long disappeared as had most of the once-common narrow alleyways. The whole exterior, with thirty dilapidated cottages, was built on a then-empty empty building-site on Benburb Street running just north of the River Liffey in Dublin.
Interiors, including the 'New York' tenements were built in the studio.
Platforms 4 and 5 at Pearse Station on Dublin's Southside stand in for 'Limerick Station'. The station was also used for Neil Jordan's 1996 Michael Collins, with Liam Neeson, and the 2005 version of Lassie, underwent major renovation in 2007.
The church authorities, being less than pleased with the way their predecessors were depicted in the book, there was never really any chance of filming at the real Redemptorist Church in Limerick. The Oblate Fathers in the Dublin suburb of Inchicore took a more understanding attitude, and this church stands in.
This is a basic entry and due to be expanded.
